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The NONMUNE - a Sustainable Urban Collaborative Affordable Living project, Vancouver BC
The NONMUNE The Nonmune is a Sustainable Urban Collaborative Affordable Living project (SUCAL) We are a group of people who have come together to create a way of living that integrates our deeply held values of social, economic and environmental sustainability. We do this in the context of a growing urgency to address issues of climate change, urban sprawl, consumer cultures and housing affordability. Many of us are in the East Vancouver Area and are committed to living close to public transit and within walking and biking distance of amenities. We are all renters with excellent track records. This initiative is not driven by the desire to be a homeowner for its own sake. However as a group we do represent a growing segment of the Vancouver community who are financially stable, but are still squeezed out by the housing market. We are unable and unwilling to buy tiny condos for high prices and uninterested in perpetuating the highly destructive pattern of relocating to a car-dependent single-family suburban home. Therefore, we have come together to look for an affordable housing solution where we areable to create the housing and living conditions that represent the changes necessary to address today’s many ecological and social challenges.We want a place where we can initiate and add social and physical environmentally sustainable features to the best of our ability. We do this to improve our own lives and the life of our planet. Long Term Objectives *To have an affordable place to live that aims for the highest standards of social and environmental sustainability. *To live in a building that can be modified and retrofitted over time to accommodate innovations and evolutions in sustainable design and behaviour. *To pass on the housing affordability and sustainability to future residents. *To be a model of affordable and sustainable urban living that can replicated by other groups in Vancouver and elsewhere. The Strategy *To form an entity to renovate an existing building then sell to it’s members after the renovation or to own a building and lease back to the members depending on what is feasible. *The renovations to include adding sustainable features to the project to ensure good indoor air quality; long term reduction in maintenance and energy costs; and to include features that inspire people to live in a more sustainable way. *To use the Cohousing model as a guide for the project. *To have a mechanism in place to ensure compliance to participatory agreements. *To have a mechanism to ensure long term affordability so the same risk return benefit is passed on to the next buyers. *To agree on a strategy for existing tenants that considers them. This may include strategies such as replacing leaving tenants with members of the group, switching accommodation with some tenants, providing incentives for people to move, and extending membership to those who qualify, and in some cases continue to rent to some of the existing tenants due to existing circumstances. Bold text